L'antico eroe greco Perseus utilizza il volto della Medusa per trasformare l'Atlante in una montagna – o addirittura le montagne africane dell'Atlante – in un'arte sgraffito rinascimentale alla fine del 1500 sulla facciata di Stadtplatz 33 nella piazza della città di Gmünd, bassa Austria, Austria. La scena della mitologia greca, derivata da un bosco di Virgil Solis (1514-62), raffigura un episodio narrato dal poeta romano Ovidio nel Libro 4 del suo poema narrativo epico, i Metamorfosi.
4230 x 2810 px | 35,8 x 23,8 cm | 14,1 x 9,4 inches | 300dpi
Data acquisizione:
3 settembre 2008
Ubicazione:
Gmünd, Lower Austria, Austria
Altre informazioni:
Questa immagine potrebbe avere delle imperfezioni perché è storica o di reportage.
Gmünd, Lower Austria, Austria: Atlas is turned into a mountain – or even Africa’s Atlas Mountains – by seeing a Medusa face on the shield of ancient Greek hero Perseus, in sgraffito art on the 16th century front of Stadtplatz 33 in the town square. The scene derives from a woodcut by German printmaker Virgil Solis of a scene in Book 4 of The Metamorphoses by the Roman poet Ovid. In ancient Greek mythology, Atlas is condemned to hold up the heavens and sky for eternity and was later linked to the formation of North Africa’s rugged Atlas Mountains. According to Ovid, Atlas was a king “vaster than the race of man”. When Perseus came to his kingdom, asking for shelter and saying his father was Zeus, King of the Gods, Atlas refused him hospitality because of a prophecy that a son of Zeus would steal pure golden apples from his orchard. Perseus, riding the winged horse Pegasus, turned Atlas not just to stone, but into an entire mountain range – his head a high peak, his shoulders and hands mountain ridges and his beard and hair now forests. In the 1500s and 1600s, artists depicted Atlas ‘growing’, from a crag (1557), to a hillock with a human shadow (1591) to a vast crowned Atlas with but his robes changed into a mountainside (1606). The Metamorphoses, a narrative poem, is seen as Ovid’s greatest work. Over 15 books, the poet chronicled world history by blending real events with hundreds of myths and legends. The poem inspired sculptors, painters and musicians, as well as writers such as Dante, Chaucer and Shakespeare. Virgilius or Virgil Solis (1514-62) was born and died in Nuremberg, Germany. He produced prints from engravings to sell, as well as woodcuts to illustrate books. His woodcuts from Ovid were published in many different editions. Sgraffito is the artistic technique of scratching or cutting away parts of a surface layer of plaster, stucco or paint to expose a different colour or texture underneath. D0785.A9388
